Survey Data
Reg No
31306107
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1830 - 1840
Coordinates
133036, 298299
Date Recorded
10/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1835; extant 1838, originally three-bay double-height single-cell comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay double-height chancel (east). Dedicated, 1881. "Improved", 1928, producing present composition. Renovated, 1983, with sanctuary reordered. "Restored", 2002. Pitched slate roofs with trefoil-perforated crested clay ridge tiles, lichen-covered coping to gables on thumbnail beaded "Cavetto" kneelers with wrought iron-detailed flat iron Cross finials to apexes, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Rendered, ruled and lined walls. Pointed-arch window openings with concrete sills, timber Y-mullions, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on monolithic label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Pointed-arch window opening to chancel (east) with concrete sill, Y-mullion, and concealed dressings with hood moulding over on monolithic label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Full-height interior open into roof "restored", 2002, with carpeted central aisle between memorial pews, paired Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (undated) with one cut-veined white marble wall monument (ob. 1979), exposed strutted Queen post timber roof construction on beaded "Cavetto" corbels with wind braced timber boarded vaulted ceiling in carved timber frame on carved timber cornice, and pointed-arch chancel arch framing carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, 1983, with Gothic-style altar below stained glass memorial "East Window" (1929). Set in landscaped grounds on a slightly elevated corner site.
Appraisal
A church erected 'on an acre of ground given as a site by [John] Bolingbroke, Esquire [of Oldcastle]' (Lewis 1837 II, 365) regarded as an important component of the ecclesiastical heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the dismantling of the Penal Laws under the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; and the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the church in the early twentieth century with those works attributed to Ralph Henry Byrne (1877-1946) of Suffolk Street, Dublin (Irish Builder 1928, 506). Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reordered (1983) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where vibrant stained glass; altar fittings demonstrating exemplary craftsmanship; and the McDonagh Memorial "East Window" (1929), all highlight the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed Queen post roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan setting.